


An 'Effed Up World, An Unjust Game

by stellarfluid



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Persona 5
Genre: Multi, Persona 5 AU, all the phantom thieves are be more chill characters, i actually havent finshed p5 yet so we'll see how this works out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 15:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12774315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarfluid/pseuds/stellarfluid
Summary: Jeremy Heere is a criminal. Well, actually, he really isn't, but he sure is treated like one. He butted in where he didn't belong and now he's paying the price. And the meaning of "price" in this case is a year-long probation, a new home, a new school, and new people, all who know already know about what he's done. Quite frankly, Jeremy is not looking foward to the up coming year. To top everything off, wierd things have begun to happen, all starting when a wierd app appeared on Jeremy's phone. He begins to make friends with the most unlikely of people, all going through similar situations to his own, and together they begin to work together to fix the distorted world that has hurt them all. But this is truly an unjust game. Will Jeremy and his friends be able to fix the distrotion, and will Jeremy be able to avoid the "ruin" he's been warned about?persona 5 au where everything is the same except the phantom theives are replaced with the characters from the musical be more chill! you dont need to know anything about persona 5 to understand this story, i'll make sure everything is adequatly explained!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i dont know where exactly im going with this. uhhh we'll see. but jsyk im leaving literally every character alone except for the phantom theives. some people are gonna have american names and others japanese names and thats just how it is, sorry

_The world is not as it should be._   
_It is filled with distortion, and the "ruin" can no longer be avoided._

_Those who oppose fate  and desire change..._   
_From time to time, ther were reffered to as "Tricksters."_

_Our protagonist is the Trickster._   
_Now is the time for him to rise against the abyss of distortion._

* * *

The people at the casino were not expecting anything big to happen that night. They all had planned to go have some sort of reckless fun, betting away their salaries and their life's worth on dumb games that didn't really mean anything. it wasn't too much to ask for, right? With all the wierd stuff happening around the city within the past year, the casino-goers wanted to escape from their not-so-normal-anymore lives with just a simple night of risky bets and stupid deals.

But that wasn't going to happen, they realized suddenly as the casino's securety alarm began to ring loudly and sharply above the crowd. No, as soon as the best began to ring, panic broke out among the great mass of people. ' _What_ _ _now__ _ _?__ _'_   they asked themselves. ' _What could possibly be happening_ _ _now__ _ _?__ _'_

A woman saw something out of the corner of her eye. She spun to face whatever it was, but there was nothing there. Was she seeing things?

Then, a man caught a glipse of the same thing - whatever it was. " There's something here!"  he whispered to himself as three men in black suits and dark glasses joined the panicked crowd. The presense of these men seemed to put the people even more on edge as the all either ran in an attempt to escape before anything bad happened, or looked around, scared and confused, for whoever or whatever the intruder may be. Finally, a man spotted a dark shadow jump onto one of the light fixtures hanging from the cieling...  _wait._ Was that a  _person?_

"Hey!" the man called out, feeling his body tense in fear, "Up there!" Hundres of heads turned to face the light where, in fact, a person  _did_ stand. Dressed in black and a mask covering the upper half of his face, the figured smiled a bit as he gripped the black brief case in his hand a  _bit_ _t_ ighter.  "He's here," one of the black-suited men spoke into a headset as he began to rudely push people out of the way. "move in immeadetly." Now panic really  _ _did__ insue within that casino. Terrified people began to run to exits as fast as they possibly could, and there was a great deal of clamor.

The masked man - no, he wasn't quite old enough to be called a man - smiled again and took a deep breath.

This masked person is the protagonist of this story.

"Great going, tall-ass!" a guy's voice spoke into a headset he was wearing, sounding genuinly impressed. "Now get running!"  
"This is our only chance, dude!"  another guy's voice called.  
"Stay calm," a girl's voice reassured, "you can get away now!"  
"We'll retrieve the breifcase on our end," another girl said.

Their conversation was then cut off by a strange, barely audible transmission.

"Huh? What was that?" the same girl continued, not exactly sounding worried, but skeptical.  
"Hey, you," the first voice said, addressing our protagonist, "don't worry about us. Just get the hell out there!" The masked figure didn't need to be told twice. He was already running, jumping from light fixture to ight fixture as he made his way to a set of doors he saw on the far end of the balcony that sorrounded the entire casino.

"Alright, but I gotta say," the guy's voice was saying, "showing yourself about that crowding was a  _really good move._  Nice work, Joker!"  
"I bet Skull wouldn't pull it off that easily," a new girl's voice said in a mocking sort of tone, "but then again, I wasn't expecting you to pull it off that easily, either!"  
"Yeah," the second dude laughed, "you two have never been that good at looking cool!"  
"Hey! Be nice!" another guy's voice chimed in. "We're all a team here!"  
"There he is!" called one of the men in black suits, and our protagonist, 'Joker', slid to a stop. "Shit,"  he said alloud. They had come out the door he was heading towards.  _"Shit!"_  
"Just run!" one of the girls called. "Get out of there!"

Joker took a shakey breath and tired to stay calm, running the opposite direction as he looked for another way out. He wasn't going to freak out. This wasn't the first time he had done something like this, he was actually  _pretty good_ at doing stuff like this, and he was going to make it out fine just like he had every other time. He took another deep breath, and felt a lot calmer now. This was fine!

"M'kay," the first guy's voice said, "eveyone's focusing on him, so that means the rest of us can get away!"  
"Eveyone remember where we're meeting up?" another girl asked, not because she was worried about them necessarily, but becuase she couldn't exactly remember herself.  
"Don't worry about it!" the final voice called. "I can guide you all!"

While they were talking, Joker had managed to find another exit. Up on the wall of the casino he was going towards, there was a ledge and, while he wasn't entirely sure where it lead, he knew itlead to a better place than where he was. He grabbed onto the ledge and pulled himself up onto it, and found himself on a patio-type thing extending from one of the casino's higher floors. The night air felt much better than the stuffy air inside the building, he acknowleged as he sprinted towards the set of doors in front of him, then stopping suddenly and three men in black suits appeared from seemingly nothing. He hand't noticed them before, had he? Shit. But then again, there were only three. That wasn't too many for him to handle, were they?

For you see, these men weren't  _men_  at all. Before Joker's eyes, they distorted inhumanley, their faces almost melting away to show shiny, blue masks beneath. One jumped impossibly high over Joker's head and landed behind them. Joker closed his eyes for a moment as he turned to face it, then smirked to himself. These things weren't going to be too hard for him to handle at all!

"Take 'em down, Joker!" the reasurring girl cheered. Joker pounced at the creature, and violently tore the mask off its face. This time it distorted into a  _real_ monster, something so odd and distorted that it could never be described accuratly. Joker was not shaken by the sight of it, however - he had seen worse.

He stared at the moster for a moment, trying to decide the most efficient way to take it down, then finally ran at it, stabbing it with a beautiful-looking dagger. The injury was enough to stun the creature - it was not expecting such a weak-looking thing to be able to inflict that much pain. Joker took the free time to pull out a pistol and shot at the thing.

The sharp pain of bullets was enough to snap the inhumane being out of its shock - but wasn't yet enough to take it out. No, this thing was not going down without fighting back. It screamed anglriy, speaking what almost sounded like words, but a bit too pained and distorted for Joker to make out at it lashed out at him. The attack struck, and it stung, but it didn't hurt that much.

"Eveyone else," the final girl was saying, "head to positions! Use route B!"

Joker held his dagger firmly in his hand as he again ran at the beast. This time, when he stabbed the creature, it cried out in agony, then seemed to melt away into a shadow. It was gone.

"Great work!" the first guy's voice congradulated. "That wasn't hard for you at all, huh?"  
"Look out! There's more of them!"

Back-up was arriving. Joker was able to escape them as he climbed up a pillar behind him, and jumped onto the next level's patio. "There's a door behind you!" one of the girls told him, and he spun around and ran through it. "Alright," she continued as he ran through a dark hallway within a part of the casino that most people weren't supposed to enter, "you should be able to get our! Hurry!"  
"Dude, can he even hear us?!" one of the guys asked.  
"Don't worry," another of the girls said, "I'm picking up everyone's voices just fine! Keep going, Joker!"

Joker ran to a door to at the end of the hallway, and ran down the flight of stairs that was on the other side.

"We got away for a lot of those men in black, but there's  _still more of them!"_   The previous dude said. "Be careful!"

Just as he was saying that, Joker ran into a hallway with a large window. On the other side of the glass he could see one of the men in black sprinting down that hallway in some sort of a frenzy. "Where did they go?!" he was shouting as Joker pressed himself against the wall so he wouldn't be seen. "Damn it!" the man shouted, then said into his own headset, "I can't confirm the inturders' location." He then exited the hallway, still speaking to... whoever it was he was speaking to. Joker then thought it was safe to keep going down the hallway, but was wrong. As he turned the corner, someone yelled into his ear, "Wait! Stop!" He then saw what she was warning him of and hid behind a large storage unit. There was a man in this hallway, too! "You'll never make it out of there if you keep fighting," she reminded him.   
"I know," he hissed under his breath, probibly too quiet for her to hear. He waited for the man to leave before progressing, more careful now. "Head for the stairs!" he was instucted.

Up the stairs he went, going into another hallway very similar to the previous one - large window and all. But this time, the window showed into the room where the casino's seceurity footage was viewed. It also happened to be filled with men in black. "He's not alone," one was saying into a radio transmittor. "Find them and kill them all!" Joker made a run for it when he knew know one was looking.He heard footsteps not that far behind him, and he knew that had caught onto where he was. He kept running. Up the stairs he went. Up, up, up... and out a set of doors.

He was standing on a balcony above one of the casino's biggest rooms now, and, from what he could see, there was _no_  exit.

There  _was,_ however, a huge stained-glass window in front of him.

"Is something wrong?" the girl who was reassuring him earlier asked. "The exit should be just ahead."  
"Th-through  _there?"_  Joker couldn't help but to stammer a bit as he referenced the window.   
The girl sighed. "That's just how it is!" she said. "Due to all the comotion, the bottom floor is  _completely_  closed off."  
"Hey, can you make it?" someone else asked.

He was going to have to. The men in black had caught up with him now. "There's no where to run!" they were calling, their pistols drawn. Joker took another deep breath, and ran. Along the edge of the balcony he went, straight towards the great window. He stopped just in front of it and faced the men.

"U-uhh," he said, "see ya!"

And with that, he jumped through the window.

"Hah, what a showoff!" one of the girls laughed. "You're so reckless, you know that?"

Joker roled as he hit the ground as to keep himself from hitting the ground in a non-favorable way. He wasn't hurt when he landed, as the window wasn't too high up. He got to his feet.

And as soon as he did so, a vey bright light shown into his eyes. Actually, several bright lights shown into his eyes. "What the  _hell?!"_ he gasped, sheilding his face from the sudden burst of light. The voices in his headset went wild.

"Enemies?  _Here?!"_  
"What's wrong?!"  
"These readings! There's no way in hell...!"  
"What happened?!"  
"An ambush?! Joker, can you hande this?!"  
"Joker!"  
"Oh  _SHIT!"_

_"Capture him!"_ a voice called, and Joker began to make a run for it. He ran as fast as his legs could to a ladder inteded for one of the casino's fire exits. He began to climb it, hoping that he would be able to escape, but no. There were men waiting up there too! One knocked him off the ladder with the butt of his rifle, and Joker landed on the hard ground with a  _thud._

And that was that. He had been caught. Police officers seized him, holding him down to the ground as he struggled. One of the officers approached and looked down at him. "Huh," he said, "didn't expect to find some  _kid."_ He knelt down so he was closer to Joker's eye level. "You have your teammate to thank for this," he said, gabbing Joker by the hair and pulling his head from the ground. "You were sold out."  He then let go of Joker's hair, and walked away without another word.

"Suspect confirmed!" another voice called. "Cuff him!"

* * *

A needle laid on the dirty floor of a prison interregation room. Next to the needle, a chair sat, with a body slumped on it, unconcious. The body was that of a teenager, about 17 years of age, with brown hair that fell in his face and acne. He would seem like the ordinary high-schooler, if it weren't for the fact that he was covered in nasty bruises and was handcuffed in a room for questioning criminals.

"I guess that drug was to strong," a man grumbled. "Wake him up."  A second man splashed a bukcet's worth of water into the teenager's face, and the boy gasped, he eyes opeining slowly as he groggily shook the water off his face. Everything was hazy, and his head hurt like  _hell,_ and he was sorer than he had ever been in his life. He blinked, and looked around, confused. Where was he? Who were these men? "No dozing off," one of the men growled.

Suddenly, he snapped wide awake as he realized he was  _handcuffed._ He felt his heart rate speed up as he began to struggle, trying to get free of the awful metal things digging into the skin on his wrists. "You still don't get it, do you?" The man asked him, and he stopped, and looked up with wide eyes. "Wh-wh-wha--" he began, but was cut off by the man shouting "OH, GIVE IT UP, _"_   and kicking him so hard in the stomach that it knocked him backwards and caused him to hit the cold, hard cement floor with an intense ammount of force. Pain seered through his head as he hit the ground, and he couldn't breathe for a moment, his eyes stinging with tears as he began to feel dizzy. He remembered why he was here now.  _"You have your teammate to blame for this,"_ he remembered being told.  _"You were sold out."_

"Come on, cooperate!" The man was sayig, and he grabbed a handfull of the teenager's hair and pulled. The boy bit his lip hard, trying not to cry. "Or what," the man said, "do you want another shot?"

The boy didn't know what to say or do. But then his eyes were drawn to a video camera in the corner of the room.  _'Isn't toturing people for information illegal?'_  he found himself thinking as he stared at the little thing, recording everything happening in the awful little room. His questioner followed his gaze. "What about the camera?" he asked, and when the boy didn't reply, he continued. "Are you thinking it could be used a  _video evidence_ of your abuse or something?"  
That was a good idea, but not really what the boy was thinking. His brain was so hazy and his thoughts were so slow that he wasn't even able to fully comprehend what he was being asked. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.  
"You still haven't figured it out?" the man asked, throwing the teen's head to the ground. "There are know laws here to protect criminals like you!" and with that, he drove his food hard into the teen's stomach and once again knocking all  the air from his lungs. As the boy laid there, coughing, weezing, and gasping for breath, his questioner took a clipboard from the other man in the room and began to read off it.

"Obsturction of justice, defamation, possesion of weapons..." he read, "manslaughter too, yeah?" He waved the clipbaord in the air. "Talk about the works! And to think that all those crimes were lead by a punk like this. And you seemed to be enjoying every second of it, huh?"

The boy furrowed his brow.  _'I was enjoying it?'_ the asked himself, a bit dazed.  _'Everything is... hazy. I can't remember.'_

"You should know your place," his questioner said, then nodded at his partner, who approached the boy and... uncuffed him? The boy was even more confused now as he was seated up very forcifully. What the hell were they doing now? He rubbed at his bruised writsts.

"Sign here," the first man said,  kneeling down and shoving the clipboard into the teen's face. "It's a confession under your name."  
The boy stared at the accusations on the clipboard for a moment. He could barely remember doing these things at the moment, and a lot of them seemed like things he'd ever  _want_ to do, let alone actually manage to pull of. Suddenly filled with stuborness, he pushed the clipboard away. He didn't want to sign it.

"I see," the man said darkly, standing to his full hight. "I need your hand to sign this," he said, "but," and he put his foot on the boy's leg and leaned his wieght onto it. "I don't care if you end up loosing a leg," he growled. The teen cried out in pain as his questioner shifted all of his weight onto the foot now driving into the boy's leg, but then he took his foot off, and pulled out a pen. "Sign it," he said forcefully, handing the teen both the pen and the clipboard. There was no point in arguing now, the boy acknowleged as he reached out to grab the pen. But his questioner didn't let go right away. "Don't expect to get out of here in one piece," he said, still gripping onto the pen. "We are going to make you understand that one must take  _full responsibility_ for their actions." And with that, he let go. The teen held the pen still for a moment as he looked at the clipboard again, still very reluctant to signing it, but finally, he wrote his name.

_JEREMY HEERE_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy is interrogated. The real story begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sae niijima from persona 5 is in this chapter but since she's the sibling of a phantom thief she'll have a different last name! just wanted to clarify that before we begin, thanks for reading!
> 
> also i wrote this entire chapter then accidentally deleted the entire thing and im so upset but its ok here we go

A woman walked down the dirty prison hallway with resolve. Her steps were quick and purposeful, and her eyes blazed with determination as she walked to a door near the end of the hallway. Two detectives stood gaurd at the door, and when she approached, the nearest one stepped in front of her to block her path.

"Excuse me," he said, "but this area is strictly off--"  
"I'm Canigula from the Public Prosecutors Office," the woman interrupted.   
"Public Prosecutors Office?" the detecive asked, annoyed that she cut him off like that. "What business do you have here?"  
"Just let me through; its urgent," Canigula snapped. "I have something important I have to confirm with the suspect." The detective sighed, exasperated.  
"Ms. Canigula," he said, "I believe this case is no longer in your judristiction. Besides..." he didn't get to finish the thought, as an older detective came in holding a phone.  
"Are you Sae Canigula?" he asked. The woman nodded, and he continued. "There's a call from your director." He handed her the phone. "Hurry and get it over with. To be frank, you're being an inconvience.

Canigula took the phone. "What is it?" she asked.  
"I thought I told you to stand by," the director replied, sighing.  
"I'm responisble for this case and I'm not even allowed an interrogation?!"  
"I'm calling becasue I knew you would bring it up."  
"I will not be convinced untiilI confirm it myself," Canigula said stubbornly. "This is  _my_  case." The director siged again.  
"Good luck to you, then," he said. "I won't be expecting much, though."

Canigula then hung up the phone without another word. She handed it back to the older detective a bit forcefully, and scowled. The detective stared at the phone a bit distastfully, before saying "Fine. You can have an interrogation.  _However,_  your time will be cut short." Canigula averted eye-conact and frowned. "It's for your own sake," he told her. "His methods are still unknown. After all, we still don't know if its safe to simply meet and speak with him."   
Canigula was quiet for a moment, then finally said, "I understand." Then she spun on her heels and entered the interrogation room.

* * *

Her eyes widened when she saw the suspect. He recognized Jeremy Heere, and frowned at the state he was in. He had obviously indurred quite the beating; his face and scrawny arms were covered in bruises that were most prominent around his wrists. His stripped shirt was dirty from the prison's gross floor. His eyes were far away and hazy as he pressed his hand to his aching head. "I didn't expect it'd be you," she admitted as she sat at the table in front of him. "You'll be answering my questions this time," she added authoritively. Jeremy didn't answer. He didn't even look at her.

For a moment, Canigula didn't know what to say. She looked away from the boy in front of her and stared at the floor for a minute before her eyes were drawn to something else. There was a needle on the floor. She gasped, disgusted. "Those bastards," she whispered, before turning back towards Jeremy. "Hey, can you hear me?" she asked him, leaning in. "It seems like you've been through a lot." Jeremy looked up at her now, acknowleging her presence, and nodded. He stayed silent. Canigula continued. "Almost anything can happen to you here, and I can't stop them," she said. She sat back up straight. "That's why I need you to answer me honestly. I don't have much time." Jeremy quietly nodded again. Canigula crossed her arms, and launched with the questioning.

 _"What was your objective?" She asked. "_ _Why did you cause such a major incident? I didn't think it was a prank from the get-go, but I wasn't able to assemble a case for prosecution with the little information I had. I just couldn't find out the method behind it." Jeremy was quiet for a moment._  
"Why d-d-do you n-need to know?" he asked, and his voice was hoarce. Canigula could tell he was having trouble getting the words out. She felt bad knowing that he would have to talk a lot soon, but it had to be done.  
"This is not a matter of whether or not it can be used in court," she promised. "I just need to know. This is my case, after all."

Jeremy didn't say anything. Instead he just stared with wide eyes. Canigula took a deep breath, knowing that he was probably struggling right now. "Alright," she said softly, "let's start from the very begginning. When and where did you find out about this other world? How is it possible to  _steal someone's heart?_  Tell me your account of everything."

 _Our protagonist is held captive._  
_He is a prisonner to a future that has been sealed in advance._

 _This truly is an unjust game..._  
_His chances of winning are almost none._  
_But there may yet be possibility open to him._

 _I pray that he will over come this game..._  
_and save the world._

_The key to victory lies within the memories of his bonds -- the truth that he and his friends grasped._

_It all began that day, when the game began half a year ago..._

_For the sake of his world's future, all wel_ _l as his own, he must remember._

* * *

**April 9  
Afternoon  
Partially Cloudy**

Jeremy Heere suddenly woke up from a nightmare. He blinked and looked around as he processed that he was still on the subway on his way to the city. He took a deep breath, and pulled his backpack closer to his chest and thought about his nightmare again. It wasn't really a nightmare at all, but a memory.

_It was dark, and Jeremy was walking home from a friend's house when he heard a lot of... yelling. And screaming. Terrified but concerned, he followed the sound, rounding the corner to see a man trying to force a screaming woman into his car. She was struggling and calling for help, but the man was much stronger than she was. Jeremy's heart was racing. He had to do something! He stepped forward and began to try to help the woman, pulling the man away from her with all the strength he could muster from his little noodle arms. Miraculously, he was able to pull the man away, but when he did so, the man lost his balance and fell to the ground, cracking his head open. The woman gasped, and she and Jeremy stared as the man cried out and clasped a hand to his head, which was now bleeding profusely._

_"Damn brat," he called, "I'll sue!"_

_And when the police came, instead of arresting the man who was trying to kidnap a girl, Jeremy was arrested instead._

Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut. Look where he was now. On the subway, on his way to the city, and unable to go back hom, just becuase he tried to save some lady.

What had happened had gotten him in trouble with the law. And being in trouble with the law meant probation. And in this case, that meant he had to leave home - his dad, his school, his town - for a year. And he sure as hell wasn't looking foward to it. He was a loner back at his old school, other than one or two close friends, imagine how things would be now that he was going to be viewed as some sort of criminal! He wanted nothing more at that moment than to disappear forever, never to be seen again.

A voice came over the subway's intercom stating that they would soon be arriving at their destination. Jeremy took a deep breath. Soon he would be arriving at the place he would be staying for the year, and meeting the man who would be watching over him. What did that man even think of Jeremy? He had defintetly heard about what Jeremy had done. Jeremy fidgeted uncomfortably just thinking about it.

"Are you serious? A mental shutdown?!" Jeremy's attention was drawn to a conversation two girls were having nearby. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but now that they had got his attenton, he couldn't stop listening...  
"It's the truth! It really happened!"  
"To a person, though? That's gotta be a joke. You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?"

Jeremy was able to stop listening after that.

Not long afterwards, the subway arrived at its destination, and Jeremy got off. After slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he went to his phone for directions to the place he would be staying. He walked for a while, barely looking up from the phone screen as he did so, but when he did finally look up, he was awe-strucken. He had never really been to this city before, and it was  _huge_  -- way bigger than his suburban hometown. All the tall buildings and the great mass of people... it was overwhelming. Jeremy could feel face heating up - it did that when he got anxious. He looked back down at his phone to distract himself, but when he did so, there was something really strange. An odd app that Jeremy had never seen before was trying to open, but the phone had frozen, leaving the app's logo stuck and enlarged over the navigational app Jeremy had been using. He tried to tap out of it, but nothing happened. It just stayed.

Then, the bustling city went quiet around him. Completely silent, Jeremy looked up, confused, and gaped at what he saw. Everything was completely frozen. Not a single person in the entire city moved. "What the hell?" Jeremy whispered aloud, so terribley confused and, frankly, quite terrified. Then, something moving caught his eye. He turned to look at it - and then he froze too. But he wasn't frozen like the other people, it was more like frozen in fear.

From the center of the city sprouted large blue flames, forming the sillohette of some sort of monster-like thing. Among the bule flames sparked some bright orange ones that seemed to form into the shape of a menecing smile. Then, the flames parted and...

Was that himself he saw, standing among the flames with evil yellow eyes and a sinister smile?

Then, as fast as they had stopped, the people in the city were moving and talking again. Jeremy blinked, his eyes still fixtated on where he saw the flames. There was nothing there now; no signs of any sort of fire. He looked back at his phone. The weird app was still there. Jeremy stared at it for a while, then deleted it, and went back to his navigation app. He had somewhere he had to be.

He walked through the busy streets of the city, until he got to the backstreet area with the local businesses. He knew that man he would be staying with ran a local cafe, and was trying to find that. All the while, he heard bits and pieces of conversations, most talking about some freak accident, or something like that. He wasn't quite sure what they were talking about, but the words "mental shutdown" did seem to be brought up a lot.

Finally, he made it to his destination - a little cafe by the name of Leblanc. It was a small, cozy looking place, and it was currently open. Jeremy didn't want to go in there, though. The guy who would be taking care of him was in there, and Jeremy just wasn't ready to meet someone who knew what he had done. He stared at the glass door with the little red "open" sign hanging from it for a little longer, before finally taking a deep breath, and going inside.

* * *

 Inside the little cafe, a man in a pink shirt, a striped apron, and glasses sat on a stool at the counter reading a newspaper, and an old couple sat at one of the booths watching some talk show on a small TV hanging on the wall near the corner. They all seemed to be very much invested in what they were doing, and none of them adressed Jeremy as he entered.

"A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane while the passangers were still in it!" the host on the talk show was saying. "The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up."  
"How frigtening," the old man in the couple said.  
"What could possibly be going on?" his wife asked. "Didn't something similar happen just the other day?"

The man with the newspaper mumbled something about shellfish. Jeremy assumed he was doing one of those crossword puzzles. Then, suddenly, he noticed Jeremy. He looked at him for a moment, before saying, "Oh. Right. They  _did_ say that was today." He laid the newspaper on the counter and stood up.

The old couple decided then they were going to leave. Leaving their payment on the table, they said their goodbyes and made their way to the door. The man in the apron, who must have been the cafe's manager thanked them for coming, and Jeremy stepped out of the way to let them exit.

"This place is in the back alley, so there's no worries of a car crashing in here!" the old man joked just before he left.  
"A what now?" the manager asked. He seemed to know just as much about whatever everyone had been talking about as Jeremy did.  
"There's been a string of vehicle-related rampange accidents, you know" the old man explained. "I just hope none of them happen around here."  
"It's none of my concern," the manager said.

The old man laughed again, said goodbye a final time, then left with his wife. Jeremy looked at the manager, feeling his face heat up again as he started to get anxious. If this man were the manager, then this was who would be watching over him for the next year...

The manager siged. "Four hours just for a single cup of joe," he grumbled. Jeremy didn't reply. Instead, he just started with wide, anxious eyes. "So, you're Jeremy?" the manager asked.  
"Y-yeah," Jeremy replied. "Are you...?"  
"Sojiro? Yeah. You'll be in my custody over the next year. I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh?"  
"U-uh, yeah?" Sojiro looked Jeremy up and down, examining him for a moment.  
"I wasn't expecting you to be that much of a  _stick,"_   he said, most likely referring to Jeremy's thin and somewhat-tall body. Jeremy stammered for a bit, not knowing how he was supposed to reply, but stopped when Sojiro gave him a wierd kind of look. Sojiro then changed the subject.

"Have you been told?" he asked. "A customer of mine and your father know each other, and--" he trailed off. "Well," he then said, "not that it matters. Follow me." He then turned and began walking up a flight of stairs near the back of the little restraunt. Jeremy obeyed and followed him.

They ended up in some sort of attic, and it was a  _mess._  Boxes, bags, and other things used for storage littered the floor, and everything was covered in dust. There was a desk covered in a drop cloth in one back corner of the room, and an unmade bed in the other.

"This is your room," Sojiro told Jeremy. Jeremy looked at him. He was making him live in this mess? "I at least gave you clean sheets for your bed," Sojiro continued. Jeremy continued to look at him. "What? You look like you wanna say something."  
"Oh!" Jeremy said with a start. "It's uh... it's u-uh... it's big," he commented. Sojiro narrowed his eyes a bit, but didn't say anything relating the comment.  
"It's on you to clean it up," he said. "I'll be leaving after I lock up each day. You'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble."  
"I... I understand," Jeremy said softly.

Sojiro stared at him for another moment, then said, "Now then..." he paused, as if he were trying to find the right words to say. "I got the gist of your situation." Jeremy's breath caught in his throat.  _ _'Here it comes,'__  he thought.

"You protected some woman from a man who was forcing himself on her, he got injured, and he sued you. Right?" Jeremy nodded. "That's what you get for sticking your nose in a matter of two adults," Sojiro snapped. "You did injure him, yeah?" Jeremy swallowed hard. Sojiro wasn't done yet, though. "And now that you've got a criminal record, you got expelled from your high school. The courts ordered you to transfer and move out here, and your father also approved." He grinned. "In other words, he got rid of you for being a pain in the ass." Jeremy was staring at the dusty floor, and wrapped his arms around himself. He didn't say anything. Sojiro kept going.

"It's best that you don't talk about anything uneccesary," he said. "I am in the restraunt business, you know. Behave yourself for the year. If nothing happens, your probation will be lifted. Cause any problems, and you'll be sent to juvie. Do you understand."  
"Y-yes sir," Jeremy mumbled.   
"We'll be going to Shujin tomorrow," Sojiro said, jumping on to the next topic without taking a breath.  
"Shujin?"   
Sojiro sighed, frusterated. "Shujin Academy --" he said slowly, like he was explaining something to a child "-- the school you'll be attending. We'll introduce ourselves properly to the staff there.You better make a good first impression. It'll probably make the year a bit easier for you, since they already know what you've done. There is rarely any school who would accept someone like you, you know." Jeremy bit his lip. He was expect this man to think badly of him, but did he have to drag it on like that? Sojiro grumbled something about his Sunday being wasted, then said, "Your 'luggage' arrived earlier this morning. I left it over there." And then he left Jeremy alone and went back downstairs.

Jeremy stood there doing nothing for a moment. He felt awful after the conversation, and kinda wanted to cry, but he knew now wasn't the time. He moved his 'luggage', which happened to be a single large cardboard box filled with some of her necessary belongings, onto his bed, and began to clean up the mess he was left with. He moved all the boxes and bags that didn't belong to him into a corner, stacking them on top of each other. He swept the floors. He wiped off some table-top surfaces, and put some books that were piled on the floor onto the near-by book shelf. He decided the desk would be helpful for when he had homework to do, so he took the drop cloth of and laid it over the boxes in the coner. He then unpacked his box and put his belongings away.

By the time he was done, the day was already as good as gone. It wasn't night time yet, but the sun had begin to set, and Jeremy was pretty tired from the long day. He knew tomorrow would be a long day too.

He went to bed without any dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just so you know, sojiro is probably gonna get nicer as the story goes on. also i'm keeping his last name secret right now for a reason >:3c 
> 
> anyway, thank you for reading this chapter! i can keep up with this!! i have thanksgiving break coming up so there should be another update soon!
> 
> remember that comments are really appriceated, and have a nice day/night!


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